Coupler which are installed on electrical machinery, such as generators, motors, or transformers, for diagnosing the condition of machinery insulation must accurately extract the required electrical signals without compromising machinery performance or degrading the signals of interest. For coupling partial discharge analysis (PDA) testing equipment with electrical machinery, a convenient technique is coupling off the ground-strap to a surge capacitor used for protecting the equipment against extraneous surges from sources such as lightning. Surge capacitors are generally oil-filled capacitors which have the potential of creating a fire or explosion. Most oil-filled surge capacitors are not sufficiently corona-"free", and therefore the capacitor itself an create discharges which must be considered when analyzing the data. The oil-filled surge capacitors that are designed to be corona-free are expensive. Many installations do not have surge capacitors and suitable capacitors must be installed. As these capacitors are continuously energized, they must be reliable so that they do not affect the integrity of the system. Surge capacitors generally attenute and do not sufficiently pass high frequency signals.